Chapter 3.
 
February 28, 1998
8:20 AM 
 

Crayola blue splashes lit up the dark walls of the alleyway. Figures dressed in lumpy raincoats muttered to each other as they shook their heads. Beyond them, a rolling cot was raised to its upright position, shaking its burden, hidden by a crimson-stained sheet.

Aya awoke, feeling cramped and generally awful. And his left arm was missing. He looked at where the appendage should have been and saw Youji sleeping on it. He slowly shifted his arm out from under Youji's head and shook it a little, trying to encourage blood flow back into it. The members of Weiß had fallen asleep together in the living room for the security of them all.

They had started out with someone to stand watch; Youji had offered to take the first two hours. Now, Youji lay sprawled on his back on the floor, legs hidden by a dark green flannel blanket. Omi had migrated into the crook of Youji's arm, head on Youji's chest. He'd curled a blanket around himself as tightly as he could, making himself into a light blue ball with golden hair. Ken was asleep across Aya's legs, head and shoulders resting on Omi's back. He'd dressed for a fight, bugnuck gloves on his hands.

Aya recalled Ken waking him up for his shift, and wondered how he'd gotten from the couch to the floor, then under Youji's head. He must have dozed off for a few. He quietly got to his feet, sitting back on the couch, and glanced over at the window to still see rain sheeting it. The TV was still on, broadcasting a documentary about storms.

Now there's rain on the TV. Aya picked up the remote and checked for weather reports. His watch said eight-twenty in the morning, but you couldn't tell by the darkness outside.

"Flooding on many streets has trapped motorists who attempted to brave the storm," the anchorman announced as he found the sought after channel. "Rescue efforts are underway. Again, citizens are advised to stay indoors. Weather experts are calling this storm the worst we've had in years, with the heaviest rainfall. It is believed to have come from the Pacific, moving westward over Japan."

Aya sighed, sitting on the couch and watching the other three sleep.

"In other news, the body of eleven-year-old Suzuki Ryohei was found early this morning, lying in a dumpster," the anchorman continued, and the smiling face of a boy appeared on the television. Aya felt his blood run cold.

"Ryohei was found missing from his home at about ten o'clock last night. Details of his death have yet to be released."

Sightless blue eyes looked up at Aya from the face of a child, small hand curled limply against the windshield.

"Ryohei." Aya grit his teeth, closing his eyes.

"Suzuki Ryohei would have been twelve years old tomorrow," the anchorman continued.

"Why?" Aya demanded of no one in particular. "Why did he kill a child? The boy hadn't done anything."

He cursed under his breath, getting up and walking into the kitchen. He flipped on the lights and blinked in the glare. Grumbling, he opened the rice cooker, making himself a bowl of rice. Then he opened the refrigerator for the stir-fry Omi had made for last night's dinner.

Aya gasped and threw himself back against the counter from the creature that stood there on the top shelf. Its skin was black and smooth, standing like a man at about eight inches tall. It had a face like a bat and glowing red eyes. It seemed to snicker at him, lifting small arms with tiny claws.

Aya grabbed open a drawer by his arm and pulled out a chopping knife. He pointed it at the creature, stepping forward slowly. It snuffled and snorted like a small pig, beady red eyes watching him. Aya stepped close enough to kick the refrigerator door closed with a slam. He heard it squeal inside and backed out of the kitchen, knife in hand.

"Aya?" he heard Ken's voice mutter sleepily.

"Get up, Ken." Aya watched the refrigerator door. "Get the others up. Now."

Ken saw the knife in Aya's hand and scrambled to his feet, quickly shaking the others awake.

"What is it?" Youji asked irritably.

"There's something in the refrigerator," Aya said slowly. "And it looks like a demon."

"Demon." Omi breathed, grabbing onto Youji's arm to stand up.

"That's it, devil or no devil, Aya, let's get out of here." Ken hurried to and opened the closet door, reaching for their raincoats. He screamed and everyone jumped.

"SHIT!" Ken shrieked, jerking on his arm, which stayed in the closet, his other hand holding onto the doorframe.

"Ken!" Youji dashed over to help him, Omi hot on his heels. Youji came up behind Ken to see the darkness of the closet full of glowing red eyes, and Ken's hand in the middle of them. Small cackling and snuffling noises emitted from the darkness. Omi screamed, backing up, and Youji grabbed onto Ken's shoulder, jerking him back. Ken came loose, stumbling them both back against the wall and off their feet. Aya was by their side in an instant.

Ken started crushing Youji against the wall, backpedaling and crying out in panic as the little black creatures started piling out of the closet. Aya sent the first one flying with a vicious kick and it squealed as it flew down the hallway.

"Get up!" Aya yelled, and Ken scrambled to his feet, Omi pulling on Youji's arm to get him up. They ran toward the door, and Ken nearly tore the doorknob off while opening it. The others slammed into his back, thrusting him through the door into the rain when he froze in the doorway. A figure, cloaked in black, stood on the sidewalk in front of the door.

"You!" Aya drew his arm back and let the knife fly. The knife embedded into the cloaked figure, who simply reached up and pulled it out, dropping it to the ground. Rain started washing away the dark substance on the blade.

"What do you want?!" Youji demanded.

The cloaked figure lifted one cloak-covered hand, holding it open as if he expected something. "The time has come. Give unto me the One."

"The One?" Aya demanded. "What are you talking about?"

Omi screamed from behind them, and they turned to see the creatures about to climb their legs. They started cursing and stomping, flinging the creatures off and into the rain.

"Call them off!" Ken yelled, dashing at the hooded man, claws flipping forward into place. "I don't care if you are the devil! I'll take you down anyway!"

The hooded man watched Ken come at him, then a covered hand shot out, lightning fast, grabbing him up by the throat and jerking him off the ground.

"Are you the One?" the man rumbled, and Ken looked into glowing eyes like coals.

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Ken blinked to see a soccer ball roll by his feet and looked up to see a sunny day.

"What the...?" he trailed off to see his old J-League team rushing at him.

"Crap!" He threw his arms up, but they rushed right through his body, kicking the ball away. Ken blinked in shock, patting his chest. It felt solid to him.

"Ken! Over here!"

Ken turned his head to see a familiar young man standing by the field, leaning on the fence and grinning.

"Kase!" he heard his own voice yell happily, and his eyes fell on himself in a soccer uniform in front of the goal. The younger, more innocent version of Ken waved at the young man on the fence and focused on the ball coming at him, calculating where it would fly, and jumped. Legs kicked up into the air, throwing his body in a sideways twist to kick the ball out of the air and back away from the goal. The team herded like chickens after the bouncing ball.

"Kase..." Ken gasped, looking around himself. "This isn't real..."

"But it could be."

He spun to see the hooded man standing behind him and jerked away, falling into a defensive stance.

"This could be real, Ken," the hooded man said softly. "If you want it to be. You can live the life you were meant to live. A champion soccer player. You miss it, don't you?"

"You can't tempt me." Ken clenched his teeth. "You'll give me this in exchange for my soul? Is that it? Well, I'm not handing my soul over to you."

"Ahh, you shouldn't look at it that way," the hooded man protested. "And you can keep your soul. Just give me the One."

"I don't know who that is!" Ken snapped. "How am I supposed to hand anything over if I don't know what it is?!"

"The One passed over thrice. The One that comes from the darkness of man. The One that exists, yet does not exist."

"That's really helps," Ken grumbled. "You got any more hints?"

"Give unto me the One that can renew the world, and you can have anything you want in that shining new world."

"Only God can renew the world." Ken narrowed his eyes. "And there's no way I can hand him over."

"God," the hooded man repeated. "The one that just sat back and watched this happen to you."

"He didn't have anything to do with it!"

"Exactly." The hooded man crossed his arms. "And you know why? Because he doesn't care. He doesn't care, Ken. I care. I'm here because I care about all of you. I can fix everything that went wrong, cleanse this world of all the filth God cursed on you, and start it anew. I want to do that for you. And you want me to do it."

"I sure as hell never filled out that poll." Ken shook his head.

"Not just you, Ken. The entire human race cries out to be saved. To be saved from disease, to be saved from the other humans who have lost their humanity. They know they aren't 'worthy' of God. I can make them worthy. That was the whole point of my argument with 'him'. He said none of you were worthy of his heaven. He had made sure of it. He created sin, greed, lust, all of it. He stacked the cards against you. He intends for you to destroy yourselves. He's bored of the human race, Ken. I marveled at his creation. I loved him for creating man. Then he turned his back on you. I still love the human race, Ken. And he doesn't."

"Okay, my lie detector is going nuts," Ken said boredly. "Stop yapping, cause I'm tired of it. I'm not giving you my soul, and I don't know who the One is, so get out of my face."

The hooded man unfolded his arms. "As you wish."

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Aya slammed his own body against the wall, grimacing as he heard the angry squeals of the creatures he crushed. Youji was ripping the creatures off and stomping on them one by one. Omi was grabbing creatures and throwing them right and left, only to have them come running back.

"Ken!" Youji yelled, stomping one creature that screamed horribly every time his foot came down. Ken was still in eye-lock with the hooded man; so utterly motionless, he could have been paralyzed. Aya grabbed up his katana from beside the couch, ignoring creatures clinging all over his body, biting into his flesh.

"Let him go!" Aya screamed, running out into the rain. The hooded man lifted his head, opening his hand to drop Ken to the sidewalk, who crumpled without any attempt to catch himself. Aya leapt into the air, dropping creatures, and slashed down at the man, who was already out of his path. Aya landed hard, his katana clanging against the ground.

"The One is here. The One calls out to me and I will find the One!" the hooded man boomed from his right, and blinked out of existence.

Aya glanced around to see if he reappeared and quickly knelt to grab Ken's arm, who still lay sprawled in the rain. A creature hissed at him from Ken's chest and he punched it off, cutting its hiss off into a chirp. He grabbed the waist of Ken's pants and heaved with both of his hands to get Ken up off the ground and over his shoulder. A creature squealed as it flew by, punted out the door by Youji.

"Get out of the house!" Aya yelled and was nearly drowned out by a boom of thunder. Youji grabbed Omi's arm and drug him out of the house, slamming the door shut behind them.

"Where are we going?" he demanded, grabbing a creature from the back of Omi's neck and throwing it across the street.

"Only one place I can think of!" Aya kicked a few more creatures off his legs.

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Youji looked up at the stained glass window at the far end of the building, Omi's arms around his neck.

Lightning flashed, lighting up the white dove with a green twig in its beak on a background of blue. A white cross glowed just behind the dove in the window. A man, knelt in prayer before the front altar, turned his head to look at them as they came in.

"You brought us to a church." Youji started breathy chuckles as rain streaked his face, still dripping down through his hair. "Aya, you're a genius."

Aya didn't answer, stepping forward to let Ken down on a pew in the back.

"He can't come after us here, can he?" Omi asked as Youji knelt down a little to let the boy slide off his back.

"I wouldn't think so." Youji ran his hands through his hair, squeezing water out of it. The man at the altar got to his feet, straightening a black, robe-like jacket as he walked forward to them.

"Please, my son," he said to Aya, who watched him approach. "Do not bring weapons into the house of God."     

Aya looked down at the katana still in his hand, and placed it on the floor by the pew.

"Forgive me, Father," he said quietly. Youji and Omi stared.      "Did I just hear Aya say that?" Youji whispered. "Pinch me."

Aya turned to hear Youji yelp in pain.

"I wasn't serious!" Youji hissed at Omi. Omi blinked at him innocently.

"Father." Aya looked back to the priest. "We need your help."

"Confessions are in the morning, my son," the priest said apologetically.

"Father," Youji spoke up. "What my talkative friend means to say it that the devil is after us."

The priest looked at Youji as if he'd just requested to see him naked.

"Father," Omi added. "He really is. He keeps asking for the One. And there are these little demon creatures that were attacking us."

The priest looked to Omi as if studying him for sanity. "The One?"

"The One passed over thrice," Ken rasped and coughed, grabbing the back of the pew to pull himself up to sitting position.

"Ken-kun!" Omi stepped over to him. "You're all right!"

"Of course." Ken tried to smile and grimaced instead. "Like I said, I'm not giving up my soul without a fight."

"The One passed over thrice," the priest repeated. He turned and walked toward the altar, then vanished into the side wing.

"What does that mean, Ken?" Youji asked, sitting down on the adjacent pew.

"It was what that guy said." Ken rubbed his head. "He said he wanted the One that had been passed over thrice; that came from the darkness of man. Someone that exists, but doesn't exist."

"Cryptic shit," Youji sighed. "Exists, but doesn't exist?"

"It sure scared off the priest," Omi murmured. Aya sat down on another pew, clutching his hands together and rocking his feet from heel to toe.

"What does he want this 'One' for?" he asked.

"Some shit about cleansing the world with him or her and starting it over."

"Armageddon," Youji said quietly. "But that's bullshit. Armageddon starts with earthquakes, and horrible storms, and plagues, and the dead walking, and all sorts of stuff. Not just a night of rain."

"That's what he said," Ken sighed. "He said a lot of bullshit."

"It's a lesser known prophecy," the priest called from the wing as he walked back out, carrying a book. They watched the priest walk down to them.

"Lesser known?" Youji asked.

"The One is the host." The priest sat down in the pew in front of Youji. "A body. The reason why this prophecy is lesser known is because it isn't Armageddon itself, and the possibility of it happening is near improbable."

"Then what is it?" Aya asked.

"Only God may be born in flesh," the priest explained. "He has prevented the Dark One from being able to do so. But he cannot close off all venues. His only loophole was to make one body available every thousand years. And he encrypted the description of that one body so that it may be impossible to find."

"Why does Satan need a body?" Ken asked.

"God created his most amazing miracles through the body of his only son, Jesus Christ." The priest rested his elbows on the open book in his lap. "Human bodies have that kind of power. Angels in human bodies can perform small miracles they could not if they did not have bodies."

"Angels in human bodies?" Omi blinked. "That happens?"

The priest nodded. "They watch over us in subtle ways, because that is the way of God."

"So the devil is seeking a body to perform a miracle?" Aya asked.

"In that human body, the Dark One can bring about the Armageddon through sneakier means," the priest explained. "He can slip by the immediate notice of the other angels in a human body. It will take more time, but the end will still be the same."

"So this is that time in that thousand years that the body is available," Youji added.

"It appears so. It has been nearly forgotten."

"So what happened to the last host?" Omi asked.

"I cannot say." the priest sighed. "The host may not always make it to maturity. That host is just as susceptible to accidental death, disease, and all else, just as the rest of us. The last host may have died in infancy."

"So one of us may be the host," Youji said slowly. "That must be why he's picking on us."

"One of you may be." The priest nodded. "Or he thinks you are. And he has a time limit. The dark one must take the host body at a certain time, or his chance is gone again for another thousand years."

"And when is that?" Ken asked seriously.

"That we do not know."

"We don't know a lot," Aya said dourly.

"Stay in the house of God." The priest stood. "If one of you is indeed the host, then you are safest here."

Youji nodded slowly and the priest made a beckoning wave with his hand.

"Come. We'll give you a place to sleep and dry off."